Abyar’s ‘Night of the Full Moon’ rakes in Iran’s major cinematic awards

The 37th Fajr Film Festival, Iran’s major cinematic event, named winners during a closing ceremony on Mon. evening, with Narges Abyar’s ‘Night of the Full Moon’ winning as many as six main awards.

Fajr Film Festival is the most important, most anticipated and longest-running cinematic event of Iran, which was founded in 1983 and is organized every year by Farabi Cinema Foundation under the supervision of the ministry of culture.

The festival this year, in its 37th run, had an interesting line-up, to say the least. From the director of fan-favorite ‘Life and A Day’, Saeed Roustayi – whose latest feature ‘6.5 Each Meter’ starring household names Payman Moadi and Navid Mohammadzadeh won the Audience Award – to ‘Midday Adventures’ sequel, ‘Trace of Blood’, and of course ‘Night of the Full Moon’, the latest film by the female director and screenwriter Narges Abyar, whose successful results with ‘Track 143’ and ‘Breath’ had already raised much expectations about her newest cinematic endeavor.

Last night’s award ceremony directed its spotlight on Abyar’s ‘Night of the Full Moon’ for the most part. The film won Best Director, Best Film, Best Actor (Houtan Shakiba), Best Actress (Elnaz Shakerdoust), Best Supporting Actress (Freshteh Sadr Erfaei), and Best Make-Up (Iman Omidvari) awards.

The film narrates the true story of Abdul-Hamid Rigi, the younger brother of Abdul-Malik Rigi, the founder and leader of the Jundallah terrorist group in southeastern Iran, who marries Faezeh Mansuri, a woman from Tehran. He forces Faezeh to leave her homeland along with her brother to live in Pakistan where they find themselves involved in the Jundallah terrorist activities.

‘Midday Adventures: Trace of Blood’ directed by Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, was the second most award-winning title of the festival, along with ‘6.5 Each Meter’ and ‘Maskhareh-baz’ (‘Doofus’). The sequel to ‘Midday Adventures’ won Best Special Effects (Iman Kariman), Best Costume Design (Mohammadreza Shojaee), and Best Sound Mixing (Mehrshad Malakouti).

‘6.5 Each Meter’ by Saeed Roustayi, meanwhile, won the Best Audience award. It also won the Best Sound Editing (Iraj Shahzadi), and Best Editing (Bahram Dehghani) awards.

‘Maskhareh-baz’ by Amir Homayoun Ghanizadeh also won three awards for Best Visual Effects (Javad Motouri), Best Supporting Actor (Ali Nasirian), and Best Art and Best Experimental Film awards.

Other winners of the 37th Fajr Film Festival include ‘Gholamreza Takhti’ by Ali Hatami and Behrouz Afkhami (Best Scenic Design and Best Cinematography), ‘Qasr-e Shirin’ by Reza Mirkarimi (Best Film Score and Best Script), ‘The Warden’ by Nima Javidi (Special Jury Award), ‘The Last Fiction’ by Ashkan Rahgozar (Best Animation), ‘Baharestan: House of Nation’ by Babak Behdad (Best Documentary) and ‘Pedovore’ by Mohammad Kart (Best Short Film Award).

‘Maskhareh-baz’ also won the best film award in the ‘New Vision’ section of the festival.

The 37th Fajr Film Festival ran from 1–11 February 2019 at a number of major venues in capital Tehran and some metropolitan cities across the country.